In The Winery
Wine, Widgets & Website
Accessibility By: Rick Gagnon, ADA Site Compliance
L ike most businesses today, wineries are site, built an entirely new one, or closed its doors
altogether.
grappling with making their websites acces-
sible to users with disabilities. Plaintiffs and
their attorneys continue to target the wine indus- So how have wineries and vineyards fared so far
try and have now filed dozens of lawsuits alleging in facing this new risk? While the final chapter in
that growers, distillers, distributors, and merchants this story has yet to be written, defendants in such
are non-compliant under the Americans with suits across similar retail-based industries have
Disabilities Act (ADA). If the current litigation wave found that their outcomes largely depend on the
follows that of other verticals recently hit – retail strategy they choose to adopt. There are three
apparel, hospitality, restaurants, travel, among oth- basic approaches. One option is to do nothing at all
ers – the trend will likely persist until every player and hope for the best.
in the space has either revamped its existing web-
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